Emotional Intelligence in the Supply Chain

Emotional Intelligence can be a powerful tool for procurement in dealing with both internal customers and external suppliers.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the concept of emotional intelligence.

According to Wikipedia, it is defined as “the capacity of individuals to recognise their own, and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different feelings, and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour.”

The concept was pioneered in the middle of the 20th Century, but only popularised in the late 1990s. Following an increase in popularity, Emotional Intelligence was quickly moved across into the business world.

Developing Internal Relationships

Although they may not have known it as Emotional Intelligence, most procurement and supply chain professionals will have used its facets. This may have been fairly common, and both with internal customers, as well as with suppliers.

A good Supply Chain Manager must not only understand the motivation and needs of customers and suppliers. They must also develop strong and lasting relationships, based on mutual respect and trust.

With these relationships, over time (and assuming a good job is being done), internal customers will respect the manager’s role, relying on their decisions, and their judgement, in day-to-day work.

Gradually, the lines of thought from both sides will become aligned, potentially reaching a perfect strategic synchrony. If this happens, fewer explanations will be required for procurement to understand, and satisfy, internal customers’ needs.

Such coordination is the best example of the optimisation between these areas, resulting in great efficiency for a company.

Good Listeners

In addition to this, similar relationships should also be developed with suppliers. While keeping the primary company goals in minds, procurement should be able to guide the supplier approach in line with their organisation’s, and get them working in the same direction.

As Artur Osipyan explains in his excellent article, when dealing with suppliers, “you need to be a good listener to ensure you capture opportunities of doing things better and can connect the dots together.”

Companies must not impose their conditions, but look to build a partnership with the vendor, for both parties’ benefit (the famous win-win).

Perhaps the most critical use of Emotional Intelligence is where the internal customer demands and supplier offer fail to match up. It presents a situation where procurement needs to play ‘Good Cop-Bad Cop’ with both sides.

Using diplomacy and Emotional Intelligence will help create common ground for both parties, and transform this into a mutually beneficial relationship. This will also enable the parties to work together in the future.

Creating Mutual Wins

There are few things that create a stronger partnership than working together to overcome issues, and finding a satisfactory, and mutually acceptable, solution.

There are advantages to the so-called ‘cold negotiations’, where hardly any contact is made with suppliers prior to, and during, the process. However, any effective medium- to long-term strategy will need a foundation of common agreement, and understanding of mutual professional development.

To achieve this foundation, procurement and supply chain managers will not use negotiation skills, but Emotional Intelligence. This can then create the first pillar of a professional relationship between the two companies that could produce plenty success in the future.